Posted on 05/28/2019 2:42:37 PM PDT by dangus
I can't handle it anymore. My curiosity has burned for decades about this, and I finally decided that hey, there's a thing called the internet so I can ask:
Why do between about 1 in 5 and 1 in 10 people insist on parking backwards, despite the fact that it's obviously MUCH more difficult. I always get stuck waiting for these people why they try over and over to straighten their cars out. WHY?
I can't detect any trend in demographics... young v old, north v south, city v urban, white v non-white, men v women... just a consistent portion of people who INSIST on blocking me for fifteen minutes while they park backwards! Please... I'll just presume you're someone who can do it in one move, every time and never cause massive jams in parking lots... someone just tell me WHY you do it!!!
Sounds like “First Responder” parking so, if an emergency call comes, they can get out fast.
a no-brainer
1) You either have to back in or back out
1A) You are more acclimated to the car at the END of a driving cycle than at the beginning of it and can therefore control your manuevering better
2) You may have to make a hasty getaway, for reasons not of your own choosing. You generally DON”T have to make a hasty entrance (and if you do, ERs for example, almost always have a drive-thru feature at the entrance to speed things up
Note: Oak Ridge (or maybe it was Savannah River) DoE facilities had a tail-in-first parking rule just to facilitate Plant evacuations in case of major accidents
But it could be in the car behind yours grille ... lol I've seen some really loonnggg hitches in ranch country.
P.S. I don’t go to too many busy parking lots any longer, but when I do, I look for a “drive-through”.....that’s two spaces that I can pull into one, drive through to the adjoining one, then I’m in the position to drive away when leaving. I have to be careful that nobody is heading for that other empty space. My daughter thinks I’m nuts, and she could be right lol.
I hear you. Also do not like parking vultures: those that block traffic to claim a space when they see someone walking to their parked car.
I almost forgot - my first car, a bright yellow 1975 Fiat 128 sedan was sufficiently unreliable (shocker!) that I wanted to have ready access to the engine compartment for the days that it wouldn’t start. I’d pop the hood, reach in, give the distributor a little twist to advance the timing enough to start it then set it back. I could do all that in about 30 seconds. Now, THAT was a time-saver.
around here it is always a BIG truck so it takes even longer.
Some places have a curb when you pull in and many cars are low in the front or have a spoiler in front that will hit the curb.
That is the policy with a lot of industrial sites...in cases of emergency, people need to leaving in an orderly fashion.
A second reason at least for me is that when parking at home, there are always a lot of kids playing about. Driving past and then backing into my driveway is a lot safer because I can already see before starting to back up that there are no kids in the way.... whereas backing out on to the street (if I drove in) always carries the risk that some kid on a bike will swerve around a car and make it far more difficult to see him/her fast enough.
In my parking lot at work, one of my co-workers parked nose in in and then when backing out to leave, he nailed a car that was travelling past... the car was way closer than normal because the driver was trying to read the numbers on the building units. Where there is a choice of backing in or driving in, I always back in.
Nice.
“People do not look very well backing out...”
If you have a van, SUV or PU with Shell next to you, you can’t see whether you should be backing out until you are mostly out of the space. So you inch and inch and wait to honked at or hit.
Defensive driving courses recommend backing into a parking space when you can. Statistically it reduces the number of backing-out accidents.
Conditions may change while you are parked and it’s easier to see/maneuver around (for example) some @ss’s super long extended cab/bed truck that wasn’t there when you first parked.
People do not look very well backing out...
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How can they? Today’s modern cars suck regarding visibility problems.
Tiny little windows, huge headrests, large C-pillars, etc.
No wonder they need all the cameras, monitors, and other gizmos.
It’s a testosterone thing. It goes along with unshaven, tattood, pierced, GQ, machismo.
Simple.
Backing in gives the driver control of their surroundings when operating a motor vehicle and parking it.
Leaving gives them a clear field of vision and control of their surroundings when exiting.
You’re a dumbass that you have not been able to figure this out on your own.
OSHA studies clearly show when the backing in method is employed accidents plummet.
Companies with large fleets require drivers to back in to parking slots, customer driveway, etc.
They’ve spent tons of money on liability claims and studies on exactly this and have found that backing in to a slot is safest.
I drove for NYTel, NYNEX and Bell Atlantic and safety was ALWAYS #1 and they required us to back into slots
If they are blocking you for 15 (???) minutes, they should not be behind the wheel in the 1st place.
Mrs. Batangas has mastered an S-shaped backup maneuver to get into our garage after only about 15(!!!) minutes of practice one day. If she can manage to keep it between the ditches between the store and home somehow, at least she can get it into the garage smoothly on arrival.
Tactical parking in case you have to make a quick exit. I worked overseas as a contractor. We were required to park that way on a site I worked at.
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